The use of machines and automated equipment is abundant in modern manufacturing processes. In fact, in modern society, very few articles of manufacture are made completely by hand without the use of tools, machines or robots. As such, there is often a need for the equipment to engage the article being manufactured in some way during its manufacture, processing or packaging. The present invention provides an improved apparatus and method for engaging and/or handling articles, such as, for example, articles of manufacture or parts thereof One suitable use for the present invention is to pick up and/or handle packages, such as, for example, empty bottles, tubes or cartons.
Over the years, there have been many developments related to manufacturing techniques and equipment, including how the manufacturing equipment interacts with, or engages, articles being manufactured, processed or packaged. Initially, manufacturing steps often included many humans to pick up, hold and handle articles being manufactured or processed. Soon, however, it was evident that to improve safety, increase speed of production and increase reliability, human hands would need to be replaced by mechanical devices on manufacturing lines. To that end, conveyors and other processing equipment was developed. However, even with improvements in manufacturing equipment, there remained a need to load and unload the conveyors, to position articles during the manufacturing process and, in some cases, to manipulate the articles for packaging, etc.
Mechanical claws, hooks, chucks and other gripping devices have been used to engage and handle certain articles of manufacture with a great deal of success. However, such devices are often complex, having many moving parts, and expensive to make and/or replace. Further, such know gripping devices are often specially designed for one particular type of article and cannot be effectively used to engage and handle articles having different sizes, shapes and/or materials. Thus, when used with different shapes, sizes or numbers of articles, know engaging devices can present negative consequences, such as, for example, a decrease in speed of handling, damage to equipment and/or products and/or the need to have different engaging devices for different articles of manufacture, even if they are otherwise processed on the same manufacturing line.
Thus, it would be beneficial to provide an article engaging apparatus that is simple and inexpensive to make and that can be used with modern manufacturing processes. It would also be advantageous to provide an article engaging apparatus that is versatile enough to be used with different products and/or packages. Further, it would be desirable to provide a method for using such an apparatus alone or in combination with other equipment.